Thursday, July 28, 2011

Alice's News and Doings

Lake Michigan Beach Boys (this is my quilt; I made
a duplicate for my daughter). You may click to enlarge.

I was so delighted to check my administrator's page to discover that Petra is now an "author"! That means that all of us except for our newest member, Kathy, are officially authors of our group blog. I really goofed with Petra! I kept inviting her to be an author, and I kept wondering where she was and why she had not accepted the invitation. Well, guess what, I had typed her email address in wrong. So she never got all my invitations! But all is well now, after I discovered my goof. So good to see Petra's name listed as an author!

I'm still busy with my various birthday projects and am anticipating a visit from all the children and grandchildren, a mini reunion and surprise birthday party for my oldest sister, a small dinner party here at our home, and of course much commotion and fun with the four grandchildren. (And much cooking and cleaning up, etc. etc.) After two weeks of that, I will then be driving with my youngest daughter and her two boys to Michigan, flying from there to California. My reason for that trip is to help my other daughter's mother in law take care of our shared grandchildren, while daughter and her husband go on an extended trip.

So! I really need to get my Harmony quilt done before Aug. 11, when all the hordes descend. I finished the portrait quilt for our youngest daughter's birthday, and am coming along well on the traditional quilt for my sister's. I am so eager to finish that one so that I can get to work on Harmony! I'll "decorate" this post with the quilt top of my own quilt, a duplicate of our daughter's quilt; hers is now being quilted by our fellow Maven, Judy! The portrait portrays youngest daughter's two boys on the left oldest daughter's son on the right. It was based on a photo taken five years ago this summer, at Lake Michigan. And, yes, soon Ill need to do a portrait quilt for the other daughter, of her son and daughter!

Hope that all of you are well and are as excited about our group as I am! I am so curious: has anyone finished Harmony yet?

4 comments:

Hi Alice,I posted a comment a few minutes ago, but for some reason it didn't get published!August sounds like it will be a wonderfully busy month for you.I would love to say that my Harmony is near completion, but only in my head! I just finished ( in the knick of time ) my 12 x 12 to present at my guild meeting Tuesday night. The theme was Travel, and I had so many ideas swirling around it was not until Monday that I finally came up with a workable idea!I have a concept of the direction I would like to go with my Harmony piece and intend to start playing with some ideas tomorrow.I hope you get your Harmony piece done ( to your satisfaction ) beforeleaving for Michigan!

Well, all this talk about Harmony may get me disturbed. I am trying to stay in a harmonious state of being and need not stress tee hee. Maybe I will start some cutting out of the fabrics I got for the purpose of Harmony, but my brain won't think "work hard" because of the theme.

You're right, Linda, we need to stay very calm and relaxed as we work on Harmony! Maybe do some meditating each day before we begin work! Actually, THAT would be good for us, whether working on Harmony or some other theme!

I have already started on my harmony quilt. This will be a surprise to Alice since she knows that I need deadlines and that Sept. 15 is a long way away for me. Maybe the "Harmony" theme is helping the art flow through me easier:) This will be great if this continues. I sure hope it does!

Some Super Websites!

The Material Mavens

We are a group of art quilters who come from various parts of the United States, from the East coast and then south to Arkansas and Texas. We were inspired by the original Twelve by Twelve international art quilting group.

Beginning in September, 2011, we started posting our 12"x 12" art quilts, which were based on themes chosen in turn by our members. For Round One, we posted quilts every two months, always on the 15th of the designated months.

Round Two of The Material Mavens began in October, 2014. Some changes were made: quilts were posted every three months, and the quilts could be be either 12"x 12" or rectangular ones measuring 11" x 14", either horizontal or vertical in orientation.

Round Three of The Material Mavens will begin in July, 2018. Again, changes have been made. Now those members who wish to stay affiliated with the group are free to post quilts every time or every now and then. Two, our blog administrator collected suggested themes from the members who wanted to remain affiliated. These themes were then pulled at random from a "hat," and they were then assigned in order for the posting dates. Since we had 13 members who wanted to remain, we will be posting quilts every 3 months until 2021! This date is significant and appropriate, because 2021 will be the 10th year that our group has been in existence.